Table of Contents

This study is provided by ICPSR.
ICPSR provides leadership and training in data access, curation, and methods of analysis
for a diverse and expanding social science research community.

American Housing Survey, 1999: National Microdata (ICPSR 3204)

Principal Investigator(s):United States Department of Commerce. Bureau of the Census

Summary:

This data collection provides information on the
characteristics of a national sample of housing units, including
apartments, single-family homes, mobile homes, and vacant housing
units. Unlike previous years, the data are presented in ten separate
parts: Part 1, Work Done Record (Replacement or Additions to the
House), Part 2, Housing Unit Record (Main Record), Part 3, Worker
Record, Part 4, Mortgages (Owners Only), Part 5, Manager and Owner
Record (Renters Only), Part 6, Person Record, ... (more info)

This data collection provides information on the
characteristics of a national sample of housing units, including
apartments, single-family homes, mobile homes, and vacant housing
units. Unlike previous years, the data are presented in ten separate
parts: Part 1, Work Done Record (Replacement or Additions to the
House), Part 2, Housing Unit Record (Main Record), Part 3, Worker
Record, Part 4, Mortgages (Owners Only), Part 5, Manager and Owner
Record (Renters Only), Part 6, Person Record, Part 7, Ratio
Verification, Part 8, Mover Group Record, Part 9, Recodes (One Record
per Housing Unit), and Part 10, Weights. Data include year the
structure was built, type and number of living quarters, occupancy
status, access, number of rooms, presence of commercial establishments
on the property, and property value. Additional data focus on kitchen
and plumbing facilities, types of heating fuel used, source of water,
sewage disposal, heating and air-conditioning equipment, and major
additions, alterations, or repairs to the property. Information
provided on housing expenses includes monthly mortgage or rent
payments, cost of services such as utilities, garbage collection, and
property insurance, and amount of real estate taxes paid in the
previous year. Also included is information on whether the household
received government assistance to help pay heating or cooling costs or
for other energy-related services. Similar data are provided for
housing units previously occupied by respondents who had recently
moved. Additionally, indicators of housing and neighborhood quality
are supplied. Housing quality variables include privacy of bedrooms,
condition of kitchen facilities, basement or roof leakage, breakdowns
of plumbing facilities and equipment, and overall opinion of the
structure. For quality of neighborhood, variables include use of
exterminator services, existence of boarded-up buildings, and overall
quality of the neighborhood. In addition to housing characteristics,
some demographic data are provided on household members, such as age,
sex, race, marital status, income, and relationship to householder.
Additional data provided on the householder include years of school
completed, Spanish origin, length of residence, and length of
occupancy.

Study Description

Citation

U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. AMERICAN HOUSING SURVEY, 1999: NATIONAL MICRODATA. ICPSR03204-v2. Washington, DC: U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of the Census [producer], 2002. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2007-06-11. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR03204.v2

(1) Beginning in 1997, the methods of collecting and
processing American Housing Survey (AHS) data were redesigned. All
interviews are conducted using computer-assisted personal interviewing
(CAPI) software, allowing new responses to some questions. Rather than
existing as a single file, this collection consists of ten parts, each
containing data pertaining to a specific subject-matter. In addition,
data for building and neighborhood questions ceased to be collected
through interviewer observation. Rather, these questions have been
reworded for the respondents. Due to these changes, users are asked to
use caution when comparing data prior to 1997 with data from 1997
forward. For further information about the redesign, please refer to
DOCUMENTATION OF CHANGES IN THE 1997 AMERICAN HOUSING SURVEY included
with AMERICAN HOUSING SURVEY, 1997: NATIONAL MICRODATA (ICPSR 2912).
(2) The interview dates in the data file are not consistent with the
dates listed under National Sample Design: Sample Size in Appendix B
of CURRENT HOUSING REPORTS, 1999, included with this collection. (3)
Additional information about the American Housing Survey can be found
at the HUD USER Web
site and the
United
States Census Bureau Web site

Methodology

Sample:
The 1999 national data are from a sample of housing units
interviewed between August and November 1999. The same basic sample of
housing units is interviewed every two years until a new sample is
selected. The Census Bureau updated the sample by adding newly
constructed housing units and units discovered through coverage
improvement efforts every enumeration. For the 1999 American Housing
Survey-National (AHS-N), approximately 60,700 sample housing units
were selected for interview. About 2,300 of these units were found to
be ineligible because the unit no longer existed or because the units
did not meet the AHS-N definition of a housing unit. Of the 58,400
eligible sample units, about 5,800 were classified (both occupied and
vacant housing units), as "Type A" noninterviews because (a) no one
was at home after repeated visits, (b) the respondent refused to be
interviewed, or (c) the interviewer was unable to find the unit. This
classification produced a 90-percent overall response rate. The AHS
sample consists of the following types of units in the sampled primary
sampling units: housing units selected from the 1980 Census, new
construction in areas requiring building permits, housing units missed
in the 1980 Census, and other housing units added since the 1980
Census. For more information about Sample Design, please see Appendix
B in CURRENT HOUSING REPORTS, 1999, included with this collection.

Weight:
Please review the "Sample Status, Weights, Interview Status"
section in the ICPSR codebook for this American Housing Survey study,
as well as Appendix B in CURRENT HOUSING REPORTS, 1999, included with
this collection.

Data Source:

computer-assisted personal interview (CAPI)

Extent of Processing: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of
disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major
statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to
these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.

Version(s)

Original ICPSR Release:2002-02-15

Version History:

2007-06-11 This study has been updated with the
most recent data and codebook downloaded from the HUD USER Web site,
as well as supplemental documentation: CURRENT HOUSING REPORTS, 1999.
In addition, this study now includes SAS, SPSS, and Stata setup files,
SAS transport (XPORT) files, SPSS portable files, and Stata system
files.

2006-01-12 All files were removed from dataset 11,
12, and 13, and flagged as study-level files, so that they will
accompany all downloads.